Saturday, September 19, 2009

After the fire -- from space!

Alice Wessen of JPL (and so much more) sends us a link to this image of the Station Fire zone:

This image, captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra
satellite on September 6, shows the extent of the burned area. The
newly charred land is black in this false-color image, which was made
with near infrared light. Plants are dark red, and man-made surfaces,
particularly the dense urban centers of Pasadena and Burbank, are blue
and white.

The burned area covers much of the San Gabriel Mountains, edging
down into residential areas northwest of Pasadena. Smoke rolls off the
eastern edge of the burned land. The fire was still burning, just over
50 percent contained when the image was taken. According to the
incident report from September 8, the fire was pushing east into forest
with no recorded fire history. The fire had previously burned through
tall, thick forest that had not seen fire in the past 40 years.

The image also illustrates why fighting the Station fire has been so
difficult. The fire burned over steep mountains riddled with canyons.
The rugged landscape looks wrinkled, particularly in the burned area
where plants no longer soften the ridgelines and canyons. The steep
terrain and the fire’s extreme, unpredictable behavior led to the death
of two firefighters. Nine other firefighters have been injured fighting
the fire, reported the Los Angeles Times.

South and east of the fire, the Mount Wilson Communication Facility
and Observatory was still surrounded by unburned forest. The historic,
105-year-old observatory hosts two large telescopes, once the world’s
largest, and other instruments to study the Sun and the Universe
beyond. Mount Wilson also contains communications towers that serve
much of the Los Angeles region. The image shows that the fire
approached the facility on two sides, but left the forest around the
observatory intact.

Comments

After the fire -- from space!

Alice Wessen of JPL (and so much more) sends us a link to this image of the Station Fire zone:

This image, captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra
satellite on September 6, shows the extent of the burned area. The
newly charred land is black in this false-color image, which was made
with near infrared light. Plants are dark red, and man-made surfaces,
particularly the dense urban centers of Pasadena and Burbank, are blue
and white.

The burned area covers much of the San Gabriel Mountains, edging
down into residential areas northwest of Pasadena. Smoke rolls off the
eastern edge of the burned land. The fire was still burning, just over
50 percent contained when the image was taken. According to the
incident report from September 8, the fire was pushing east into forest
with no recorded fire history. The fire had previously burned through
tall, thick forest that had not seen fire in the past 40 years.

The image also illustrates why fighting the Station fire has been so
difficult. The fire burned over steep mountains riddled with canyons.
The rugged landscape looks wrinkled, particularly in the burned area
where plants no longer soften the ridgelines and canyons. The steep
terrain and the fire’s extreme, unpredictable behavior led to the death
of two firefighters. Nine other firefighters have been injured fighting
the fire, reported the Los Angeles Times.

South and east of the fire, the Mount Wilson Communication Facility
and Observatory was still surrounded by unburned forest. The historic,
105-year-old observatory hosts two large telescopes, once the world’s
largest, and other instruments to study the Sun and the Universe
beyond. Mount Wilson also contains communications towers that serve
much of the Los Angeles region. The image shows that the fire
approached the facility on two sides, but left the forest around the
observatory intact.